For at least the fourth year in a row, Anglicare’s nationwide Rental Affordability Snapshot, published today, has shown that housing in the national capital is unaffordable for many Canberrans, Brandon Howard, Anglicare CEO NSW South, NSW West & ACT, says.
“We have a significant crisis in the ACT in respect to rental affordability,” Mr Howard said.
An old, all too familiar tune.
But, Mr Howard said: “There’s no question things are getting worse.”
- Rental snapshot paints grim picture amidst pandemic (3 May 2020)
- Anglicare snapshot highlights ACT rental crisis (29 April 2021)
- ACT rental crisis hits ‘catastrophic’ levels: Anglicare (28 April 2022)
The report takes a snapshot of rental properties listed on realestate.com.au, allhomes.com.au, and gumtree.com.au on the weekend of 18 to 19 March.
A wide swathe of the Canberra community is affected: people on welfare cannot afford to rent a single listed property in the ACT or Queanbeyan, but low-income households, essential workers, students, and even young graduates earning up to $70,000 are struggling.
The ACT is “the most unaffordable location for almost every category of people on low incomes”, the report states.
Median rental prices have increased over the last two years by 20 per cent (from $520 in 2021 to $625 in 2023), on top of increases in food, the cost of living, transport, utilities, and medicine, Mr Howard explains.
While the prices of essential goods and services (including housing and rent) have increased throughout Australia, the ACT has experienced some of the biggest increases: well above both the usual overall territory and national Consumer Price Index, according to the report.
Over the same period, the minimum wage only went up by 11 per cent, while low unemployment makes it difficult for people to find long-term work and consistent tenure.
It is, Mr Howard says, a “perfect storm”.
Nearly a fifth of households – 18 per cent in the ACT and 19 per cent in Queanbeyan – are financially stressed.
In effect, the report states, the high cost of housing means many people must choose between paying rent and food, heating, or healthcare.
The availability of affordable and appropriate rental properties is inadequate, the report states. Out of 1,553 private rentals advertised in the ACT on 18 March, only 1 per cent (17 listings) were appropriate and affordable for households on income support; and only 2 per cent for households on minimum wage. Housing is “marginally” better in Queanbeyan: the rental affordability score is a meagre 0.2 per cent better.
Vulnerable Canberrans are hardest hit, the report states. The median rental price of $625 is beyond their means. Income support recipients would have to pay between 72 and 222 per cent of their income on rent, and minimum wage earners 40 to 88 per cent of their income.
Single pensioner and single disability support pension households would have to pay 119 per cent of their incomes to afford median rental costs, while a single JobSeeker recipient would have to spend 180 per cent.
“Even if people on support payments were able to find accommodation, they would not be able to afford it,” Mr Howard said.
Nor is social and affordable housing a solution: there is not enough. There were more than 3,150 applicants on the ACT Housing Register as of 10 March; on average, applicants wait more than five years (1,827 days) for public housing. That waiting list number, Mr Howard suspects, is lower than the reality: a number of people may not even be on that waiting list.
Some in the region are desperate. Ashleigh, a young mother and client of Anglicare’s Junction Youth Health Service, lives with her partner and child. She studies at Canberra College, and cares for her child.
All three face homelessness.
“We have been living in a caravan in my old neighbour’s back yard, but the whole thing is going to be completely demolished for renovations,” Ashleigh said. “I don’t know what we will do then. Living with family is not an option for us.”
Ashleigh and her partner have applied for the few rental properties in their price range, but have not been able to secure housing.
“We put in applications, and just never hear back,” she said. “Open houses don’t even happen anymore for rentals. They are scheduled, but then they get cancelled because the property is already rented out.”
Because her temporary residence is in Queanbeyan, Ashleigh is not eligible for most Canberra support services. She has her name down for priority housing in NSW, but has been told that she could wait five to 10 years.
This is an all-too-common story.
Another mother was made homeless, but could not live in a tent, as too many do, because she was concerned about her four-year-old daughter’s welfare. Her son has autism, and has not been able to attend school. They have needed to rely on short-term accommodation, moving from place to place.
Not having secure accommodation affects the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and the wider community, Mr Howard said. Conversely, secure housing brings benefits for physical and mental health, chronic disease, behaviour, increased employment outcomes, education, job training and career development.
Anglicare has added its voice to the call for the federal government to increase JobSeeker and other welfare payments above the poverty line, and to scrap the stage three tax cuts and reinvest the money in social housing.
“But that will only go part of the way,” Mr Howard said. “That will give people some level of capacity to afford rent. But we need to also look at increasing supply. There is no question that increasing supply will put downward pressure on rental availability [and] increase public housing.”
Anglicare has called on the ACT Government, in partnership with Anglicare and other organisations, to consider long-term strategies and initiatives to provide stable and secure accommodation.
The government should reinvest in public housing on a scale that matches the hundreds of thousands needed in the ACT, Mr Howard said, and release more land.
In the 2022-23 Budget, the ACT Government committed to develop around 30,000 new dwellings over the next five years, growing the total housing supply in the ACT from 180,000 to 210,000 dwellings, including 600 affordable rental homes by 2025–26. Under the Indicative Land Release Program, the ACT Government will release 16,417 dwelling sites over the next five years.
- Will ACT Budget housing package ease local housing crisis? (1 August 2022)
However, opposition housing minister Mark Parton was aghast to note yesterday that in the latest ACT land ballot, 4,776 registrations were made for 217 blocks (22 times as many registrations as land blocks), and calculated that in the four most recent ballots, 29,700 applications had been made for 580 blocks sold (50 times).
“There is no question that putting more supply into the market and allocating a percentage of that for public housing and social housing will certainly provide some avenue of trying to address these numbers,” Mr Howard said.
It should encourage owners of short-term short-stay rentals to return properties to the long-term rental market, to again provide more supply into the market.
It should look at regulatory settings and incentivise community agencies like Anglicare to design more private affordable rentals.
It should implement a new affordable rental investment incentive scheme to encourage private investors to build or purchase affordable rental properties.
“Obviously, in the ACT, it’s always been a very tight market; supply is very low. I accept that there’s no silver bullet to actually address this particular issue. It will take government, communities, landowners, investors, a broad stakeholder base to deal with what is a significant issue.”
Mr Howard acknowledged that the ACT Government had implemented some initiatives to attempt to address the housing crisis. The ACT has some of the most protective rental legislation in Australia, Anglicare’s report states: it banned no-cause evictions, introduced rent control measures, protected renters during the pandemic, and introduced a ‘Rent Relief’ fund this month to help low-income households.
“We certainly welcome those initiatives,” Mr Howard said. “Clearly, it is having some impact, but it’s clearly not enough to deal with what we’ve got: a crisis in respect to affordable housing.”
Anglicare, like other charities, states that demand for emergency aid has significantly increased. In the case of St John’s Care, an outreach service run by St John’s Anglican Church, that demand has doubled since February 2001.
Anglicare has called on governments to provide additional emergency funding.
“As an organisation, we are very much committed to wanting to make a difference and provide hope for individuals and families,” Mr Howard said. “Clearly, as this demand continues to increase, that will become more and more difficult – unless either the ACT Government or Federal Government provides some funding.”
Most of Anglicare’s funding and donations come from individuals, organisations, and families. If the public wants to help, they can donate food and clothing. (More information on Anglicare’s website.)
“We will certainly put that to good use to support many individuals and families that are in great need at the moment,” Mr Howard said.
